Dudes were throwing a party in Top Lahere were ganks, fights, and kills. It sounded like lots of fun!

  Unfortunately, Lars had to miss out on it. While the others were partying in Top, he ushing Bot all by himself. He demolished the Bot Turrent and tinued pushing forward.

  He was overextending but it was a safe overextension. Nobody gonna e and gank him from behind since everybody else was busy in Top. This was the perfect opportunity to split-push!

  And so, Lars pressed on. After destroyed the Turret, he targeted the Bot Golem .

  This is cool and all, but I wish I was fighting in Top instead. Lars smiled wryly. Taking on strong oppos was way more fun than split-pushing all by himself out here. But, somebody had to do this and he was the best man for the job.

  The team was at a disadvantage right now, and this was a golden opportunity to turn things around. Once he destroys the Golem, it’ll put a stop to the enemy’s momentum and will force them on the defehat’s when Lars will get plenty of ces to duke it out with strong dudes!

  So , Golem Dude. Let’s finish this real quick. Lars followed his minions into the Golem’s area. He had to shoot down this dude as fast as possible. One “Fan the Hammer”, ing right up!

  BAM. BAM. BAM. BAM. BAM. He fired nonstop.

  At this stage of the game, Fan the Hammer unlocked the ability to fire five secutive shots. And, in a few levels, Lars will even be able to fire six shots! And, it could actually go all the to seven shots, but that’s only at Lv.20. That’s when Fan the Hammer would bee OP for real, but there was still some time until then.

  Okay, all of ‘em hit the jackpot! Lars o himself. He successfully nded all five shots on the Golem’s face. More specifically, on the big gem stig out of the Golem’s forehead.

  There was no real point behind it. Headshots didn’t t on the Golem, and there was no need for Lars to nullify the Golem’s resistao skills at this time. The shots of Fan the Hammer ted as “basic attacks”, so they were already plenty effective on the Golem. As such, hitting the Golem’s core didn’t yield any advantages in this particur situation.

  heless, Lars insisted to nail every shot on that forehead. Maybe it wasn’t important right now, but it’d be critical when he pushes with his teammates.

  If I go easy on this one, my muscle memory might go numb. Even though he practiced hitting the Golem’s core almost every day, it’d mean nothing if he ’t nail these shots in a real match.

  This wasn’t like a regur daily practice. There was a lot of pressure when pying on the petitive stage and making critical pys. His body had to adjust to all these factors in order to perform as effectively as he practiced.

  Therefore, no shortcuts were allowed. He refused to go for the easy shots, especially when there was no enemy defeo pressure him at the moment However, that part was going to ge soon enough.

  “It appears DragonMaster has recalled,” Vi reported.

  “He’s probably going to defend Bot,” Yuel deduced.

  “Okey-dokey!” Lars replied. It was about time. The enemy allowed Lars to parade all over Bot until now, but there was no ce they’ll surrender Bot Golem without a fight.

  Destroying this one Golem had the potential to flip the entire game on its head, so of course the enemy had to act. But, no problem! Lars will absolutely destroy the big dude!

  Shortly after Yuel’s warning, the Berserker showed up in Bot. DragonMaster came to defend the super important objective. But, this was no reason to stop pushing! Gotta keep going, yooooo!

  “You’re not retreating?” Yuel asked.

  “I gotta take this Golem out.” Lars tinued shooting the Golem nonstop from the edge of the area. Every bullet perfectly struck the gem on the Golem’s forehead.

  “It’s dangerous,” Yuel warned. “You better retreat.”

  “I retreat, but then what? What we gonna do ? Defend Top?”

  “Well, yes...” Yuel answered relutly.

  The enemies were still threatening Top with their presehey weren’t disced by StormMonster’s death and tinued pushing, no doubt aiming to reach the Golem. They had to be stopped iracks.

  So, it’d be great if Lars returned and helped out with the defense efforts in Top. But, just as he asked, “what’s ”? How will they win from that disadvantageous position? If all they do is tinue defleg ining attacks without going on the offehey’ll never win at this rate.

  Normally, the defending team would be waiting for the attacker to it a mistake and then mount a ter-attack. However, for that to happen, two requirements had to be met.

  First, Stratus’s defense had to be solid enough to outst the enemy’s pressure. Sed, Taurus had to be careless enough to it a big mistake on the offense.

  Unfortunately, her seemed likely. Stratus’s defense was nothing special and Taurus was an airtight team with few openings. Not to mention, the enemy’s Triangle was incredibly overwhelming.

  More than likely, Stratus will cave in to pressure long before Taurus its a punishable mistake. In fact, that’s exactly how they lost the st two games.

  Lars’s makes sense. Yuel summarized. If we don’t keep pushing now, when will we?

  The situation was turning from bad to worse by the moment. If Lars retreats from Bot now, the team might never get another ce to go on the offensive again. But, was that reason enough to let Lars keep pushing Bot against DragonMaster?

  It was incredibly risky. If Lars dies here, it’ll be checkmate for Stratus. The team will have no ce of rec after losing the Queen.

  “I mea’s be real for a sec,” Lars said. “Ya really think this dude is good enough to kill me? I think not. But hey, you fought him the most, so you tell me.”

  “Hmm...” Yuel mulled over this ued question.

  DragonMaster was a det pyer, but not a particurly overwhelming one. Vi struggled against the guy a little, but DragonMaster shouldn’t pose much of a threat to Lars. At least, not in a regur duel.

  Unfortunately, the current situation wasn’t a duel. Lars had to focus on pushing the Golem while fighting the defender, so the circumstances were pying against him. He was a handicapped challenger.

  A, despite uanding what kind of situation he was in, Lars still leveled that question. In other words, he was asking how big was the skill gap between him and DragonMaster. Was it big enough to cover for Lars’s disadvantage?

  I wish I knew. Yuel frowned.

  Accurately measuring pyer skill under various circumstances was one of the biggest challenges for him as a shot-caller. There was too mucertainty and too many factors involved in this delicate process.

  One of Yuel’s biggest self-improvement goals was to be able to make such calls on demand. Unfortunately, he hasn’t made much progress in that area ever since he set it as a goal. There was no obvious method for improving his skill in this particur area.

  Is it something I only learn by experience? Yuel wondered

  Analytical teiques that didn’t have “hard rules” were a pain to study. There was never a “correct” way to master them. They mostly boiled down to “intuition”, which was the result of accumuted knowledge and experience. In other words, vague mumbo-jumbo.

  Then again, some people say my shot-calling is just “guessing”. Yuel smiled wryly.

  By pying chess for years as a kid, Yuel developed the “intuition” for reading his oppos’ quirks. After repetition upoition, he acquired the ability to make educated guesses about his oppos’ mis based on how they pyed. And, when he applied that experieo Cssmancers, it happeo work here as well.

  But, without all that chess experience, how would he start learning this “intuition” from scratch? Most likely, he wouldn’t have had any clear dires to follow. He’d just have to py many games and carefully observe his oppos. With enough experiend knowledge, intuition will naturally mold into shape.

  I guess it works the same way for paring pyer skill. Yuel cluded.

  So, was Lars strong enough to keep pushing against DragonMaster? Yuel couldn’t find the “correct” answer, and he probably never will. It was all down to intuition and educated guessing.

  I’m not sure I have enough experieo make a fident call here. Yuel thought. Or, maybe I’m just g fidence? If I don’t start making educated guesses at some point, I’ll never get better at them.

  In terms of raw strength, Lars was much strohan DragonMaster, especially when using a Gunslinger. If they fight each other, it’ll be like an adult fighting a baby. There was absolutely no ce DragonMaster will be able to win.

  But, that only applied to a fair. duel Things were pletely different during a Golem push. Lars’s deaking was still rough around the ers aill itted careless mistakes every now and then, some of which proved fatal. And, a Golem push was the kind of situation in which a little bit of overextension could easily result ih.

  Was Lars’s superior skill enough to cover up for that grim disadvantage? Yuel couldn’t answer for sure by himself. But, then he remembered something. There was another pyer on this team who was good at destrug pyers, but in a very different way from Yuel.

  “Vi, what do you think?” Yuel asked. “Do you think it’s safe for Lars to keep pushing?”

  “Oh, you’re sulting moi?” Vi blinked. “To think there’s a puzzle that even stump Chessmaster.”

  “Sorry, but we don’t have time for that nonsense. Please, just tell me what you think. You also fought DragonMaster, so you should have some data to work with.”

  “Hmm. It is indeed a difficult question, ohat has been stumping schors feions.” Vi nodded in agreement with the nonsense he outing. “In my humble opinion, DragonMaster is a fine warrior, but he is no match for the God of Headshots.”

  “Heck yeah!” Lars excimed. “I’m tellin’ ya, I got this!”

  “However, Chessmaster,” Vi tinued. “You’re the one who pyed with Gunz the most, and you also fought DragonMaster three games in a row today. As such, if anybody posses the forbidden knowledge here, it should be you.”

  “Yeah, I know. But...”

  “If you know that much but you’re still relut, then you must have specifis. You better voice them now, for we humans aren’t gifted with telepathy. We ’t tell what’s weighing on your mind.”

  “Fair enough.” Yuel realized he was itting the usual mistake. He was stuck thinking and overthinking everything inside his own head, without sharing his thoughts with anybody.

  In situations like this, it might be a good idea to take a page from Vi’s book and blurt whatever was on his mind. There was no point mulling over this alone.

  “I know Lars is stronger,” Yuel said. “But, he’ll be fighting with a handicap while pushing the Golem. One wrong move and he’ll die.”

  “A valid indeed,” Vi agreed.

  “No problem!” Lars insisted to hang around the Golem’s area, waiting for the minion wave to lead the way. “I’ll be fine! I ain’t gonna do anything stupid, promise.”

  “I wish I could take your word on that.” Yuel sighed. “We all know you sometimes get carried away in 1v1 situations like this.”

  “That’s all in the past, my dude,” Lars promised. “Did ya already fet? I’ve been pying lots of Mid the past few months. I admit, I needed some hand-holding at first, but nowadays I’m not asking you for much advice, right?”

  “You still ask me what to build every game.”

  “Haha, ya got me. But, I’m talking besides builds. Like, about my pys and whatnot. I’ve been doing my own thing for the most part, right?”

  “Yes, that’s true, actually...” Yuel didn’t realize it until now because it happened so naturally.

  Indeed, Lars stopped asking too many questions about pying Mid. The goof learned how to handle himself alone in ne and his performance has been steadily improving. He could take care of himself just fihout any hand-holding.

  Even during today’s scrimmage, Lars held his ground against a strong oppo like Nirvana in Mid. He didn’t ask Yuel for any advice aside from which items to build, as usual. Before Yuel noticed, Lars learned how to py indepely and handle difficult situations all by himself.

  “Mid was hard as heck at first,” Lars admitted. “It made me realize I was derping a lot. All this time, you’ve been supp me in Bot and clearing up the messes I made.”

  “I’m gd you realized.”

  “Haha, harsh.” Lars ughed. “So anyway, without ya in Mid, I suddenly had to deal with lots of stuff myself. I got rekt a lot at first, but it was all good. Thanks to all these failures, I became way stronger! I’m no lohe same Lars I was before! Now, I’m a Super Lars! I do stuff alone no problem!”

  “Such fidence.” Yuel smiled wryly. Was there a limit to Lars’s neverending fideno, probably not. This goof probably believed he could grasp the sun if he put his mind to it. That’s the kind of strong-willed pyer he was.

  Should I trust his fidehis once? Yuel wondered.

  It was all true, Lars improved tremendously i months. And, more than anything, his entire mi underwent an overhaul. He became aware of the importance of defense and actively worked to improve in that area.

  I probably have Ellen to thank for some of that. Yuel smiled meaningfully. It was that trickster fox who forced Lars to realize the importanaking careful decisions. And, pying Mid allowed Lars to practice many situations in which careful deaking was necessary.

  It’s true that Lars hasn’t been making many terrible mispys retly. Yuel thought. He rarely gets carried away and his defense is usually airtight. Even against Trever in the 3v3, Lars held his ground and waited for the right moment to strike. He really evolved, so...

  “Okay, I leave it to you,” Yuel said. “If you’re so sure you ha, then go for it. We o take down this Golem in order to win.”

  “Aww yeah! Now we’re talking!” Lars pumped a fist.

  “Just remember: if you die, we lose the game. No pressure.”

  “Haha, works for me!” Lars grinned. “The higher the stakes, the more fun it is!” And so, he stood his ground and waited outside the Golem’s area for the minion wave.

  The enemy Berserker was fast approag with full HP, ready to tear Lars apart. But, there was no reason for worry. He’ll overe this ordeal! He’ll destroy the Golem while fending off the Berserker! Believe it, yoooooooo!

  DarkestCymore